County make signings

ROSS COUNTY boss Derek Adams last night raided Greece and America for two new signings and has vowed to keep scouring the globe to find talent for the SPL battle.

PUBLISHED: PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sun, Jan 13, 2013

Ross County boss Derek Adams

County have snapped up 26-year-old Canadian centre-back Andre Hainault from Houston Dynamo in the MLS.

Former Atromitios full-back Evangelos Ikonomou, 25, has also agreed to a switch in the last 24 hours.

The players are now working away on securing their paperwork for ravel to Britain and will soon join the County push for survival.

And Adams – who is in the Spanish resort of Estepona with his County squad for some warm weather training ˆ reckons there is now real merit in the Dingwall side widening the net for transfer targets.

He admitted: “We’re hoping to formally complete the signings in the next few days.

“We’re waiting on international clearance for Ikonomou while we need to get a work permit for Andre.

“These things take time but it should be done shortly.

“They are both good players.

“Andre is someone who was made aware to us by out contacts in the MLS.

“We watched Andre in a few games while Evangelos trained with us for a while recently.

“With the Greek economy the way it is it’s cheaper for us to take him now than it would have been in the past.

“They are both free agents, Andre has come to the end of his contract, while Evangelos came to an agreement with his club.

“Both players give us good options in the defensive area ˆ they’re also both at a good age so we think it’s good business.

“We’re looking to break into the foreign market now.

“We already have Michael Kovacevic at right-back and have signed Ivan Sproule now but we’re still looking to add to the squad.

“We probably weren’t able to attract those types of players when we were in the First Division.

“But now we’re in the Premier League it’s probably an attraction for these guys coming across to Scotland.

“They see the top league and the publicity that comes with that.

“If we can help their careers then it’s worth adding a few to the squad.”

County will train as well as soaking up the sun in Spain before returning home for the hard graft in the second half of the season.

Adams knows the value of freshening up his squad ˆ especially at a time when he already knows that skipper Richie Brittain has agreed a pre-contract with St Johnstone and Iain Vigurs could follow suit this week.

We’re hoping to formally complete the signings in the next few days

Derek Adams

The manager added: “I think the players we have get an extra lift when they see new players arriving.

“It shows the football club is looking to move forward.

“It adds competition for places to the side.

“We’re not stopping, we’re looking to continue to try and add the squad.

“We’re always going to lose players. We’ve been in this situation throughout the years.

“That’s just the nature of the club we’re at but going abroad can definitely help us.